


My Name on Your Skin

by I_Mushi



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Darcy has a million nicknames, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Protective Thor, Smut, Soulmarks, Soulmates, Threesome - F/M/M, Tony Stark is a meddler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-15 03:44:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2214561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Mushi/pseuds/I_Mushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were two names down Darcy’s back; unclear scribbles that were supposed to sharpen into clarity when her soulmates were born. When Jane hit Thor with the truck and solved the mystery of Jane’s runes, Darcy wouldn’t admit it, even under extreme amounts of tequila, but that made her hope. And Tony is a meddlesome meddler who meddles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There are two other stories I really should be working on now, but I fell into the Marvel/Winter Soldier fandom and now I can’t get out. And I’m also a sucker for soulmate stories, and now that I’ve read every Steve/Darcy, Bucky/Darcy, and Steve/Darcy/Bucky story I’m gonna have to add my own. If you're on Tumblr, you can find me there as i-mushi reblogging pictures of Chris Evans because I have problems.

Jane's drunken fingers touched the lines of the two fuzzy names on her back curiously when Darcy finally declared the New Mexico heat too much for her shirt. Good thing it was just her, Jane, and a lot of cobbled together science machinery. Erik was stargazing way out in the desert so no one cared if two girls and a bottle of tequila sat around in their bras.

And Darcy had a damn cute bra on too so at least someone should be appreciating it.

"They've always been that way," Darcy said with a shrug, brushing off the questions as elegantly as she had since her cup size had tripled in six months and the girls in the locker room started asking questions.

"They were never clear?" Jane asked.

"Nope. Mom always thought I was just the oldest of the three, but by ten it was a little weird, and by fifteen I'd said fuck it. She's holding out hope, but if it's meant to be I'm gonna be seventy when I meet them." Darcy had once sounded bitter when she recited that, but by now it was just a fact of life.

There were two names down Darcy's back; unclear scribbles that were supposed to sharpen into clarity when her soulmates were born. In fact, they might have been clear once, but she'd had the real luck of the draw to lose both soulmates in childhood when no one was looking. When a soulmate died, the name reverted into the unreadable writing, so there was a chance it'd been clear once and then faded before anyone noticed.

Jane and her were quite the misfits. Jane's own soulmark was a series of runes no one had ever been able to make out. It was part of what drove Jane's enormous brain into science because history hadn't helped her at all. Both of them had never really talked about it before, but tequila helped.

"Think they're both men," Darcy muttered, flopping face-first on to the futon and nearly spilling her drink. "Call them my lost boys."

"This one with the R is kinda pretty," Jane murmured, her own fingers going to her right thigh to trace her runes. On the left side of Darcy's spine there was a barely legible "R" and what she was pretty sure was a B on the right. Both names graced Darcy's upper back bracketing her spine, so she couldn't see them without craning around with at least two mirrors. At this point she didn't bother anymore. Too difficult and depressing to look at.

"Sometimes I'd get a twinge back there and rush to the mirror," she admitted, then stared into her empty glass. Damn tequila making her say things she wouldn't normally. "Never anything though. Now I don't even look."

"I visited fourteen libraries around the world," Jane said, weaving a bit as she sat down on the bed. The camper was barely big enough for them both. "Did an internship in Norway and Sweden just for that. Closest is Nordic runes, but it's not a match."

They both stared at each other in mutual resignation. They weren't going to be those happy people with a soulmate (or two) on their arm beaming like they'd swallowed the sun. Just had some fucked up soulmarks and each other.

"Hey, maybe we've been spared serial killers. Or abusive jackasses. And you can make your own future and all that stuff," Darcy tried, repeating the trite line of the anti-soulmate movement. "And there's more tequila for us!"

That was the signal to pour more and forget what they'd been talking about. It would be two nights later that Jane hit Thor with the truck and solved the mystery of Jane's runes. Darcy wouldn't admit it, even under extreme amounts of tequila, but that made her hope.

* * *

When Steve had been growing up it was a little more common to have an unclear name on your skin. Childhood disease had been a lot more rampant and World War I and then World War II meant everyone knew someone who had a lost name. He'd always had Bucky's on his left hip, the match to his name on Bucky's right arm, but the one on the right hip had never been clear. Bucky had the same fuzzy scrawl on his left arm and he had never remembered a time it was legible either.

But they'd had each other, and that had been enough.

And then when there hadn't been Bucky… well, Peggy had lost her soulmate too and it wasn't uncommon for two people with unreadable soulmarks to come together. It hadn't been the same, but Steve thought it could have been if fate had cooperated.

Peggy was in a retirement home according to SHIELD's packet on her, but he hadn't yet gathered the courage to see her, and Bucky was already gone. Now though…

"Darcy Lewis," he murmured, tracing the clear words imprinted on his skin—never with a middle name, though no one knew why. It was a hurried signature by someone who didn't care for appearances except for a big "D". Steve couldn't help thinking it had a kind of careless, innate beauty.

On his left hip though was still the masculine handwriting of Bucky, the name James Barnes clear as day.

"Hasn't faded?" the doctor asked sympathetically. Steve had been in and out of doctor's appointments since waking from the ice and the marks stuck out against his pale skin. "It usually takes a few weeks to a few months to fade, especially if the death is sudden. The freezing process may have altered it too."

Steve nodded and dropped his shirt, thankful to leave the labs and go back to the gym to punch more bags until his head was clear. It was hard to think of the girl Darcy when Bucky's death seemed so fresh. It didn't help that he looked whole with both names right now. But he knew what Bucky would have wanted—hell, they'd talked about it before they'd gone to war.

" _We'll meet her one day together," Steve said, lying in bed beside Bucky. Bucky shot him his characteristic smile, rolling to kiss the corner of Steve's mouth. Bucky's fingers ran up and down the unreadable name on his hip teasingly._

" _Believe it for you and me. And we'll make up for the time she had to wait." Bucky winked and Steve felt a bit of pink in his cheeks even as he smiled. He knew Bucky was worried about dying in the war, about Steve's poor health, and he didn't believe like Steve did, but Steve was sure. They'd meet her one day._

He really hoped he'd be right. This wasn't exactly what he'd imagined, but the unreadable name would make sense if she hadn't been born for another couple of decades. And that was a weird thought.

So Steve had kept an ear out after being unfrozen, even tried to Google the name once, but even though Darcy wasn't a fashionable name now there were a lot of them scattered around the world and probably more.

Steve couldn't think about her when aliens attacked New York and then SHIELD collapsed from Hydra corruption and Bucky reappeared. He forgot all about the mysterious Darcy Lewis while he hunted down his other soulmate, who came back eventually, but not easily. Steve dragged Bucky back into the world and moved him into the Brooklyn apartment Steve owned, and dealt with nightmares, flashbacks, and the slow return of memories that took all his time and energy. He didn't think about the name that should have graced Bucky's left arm.

Then two days ago he'd lost the apartment to Hydra in an explosion and he'd had to eat his words about never living in the Avengers Tower when Tony gave them an entire floor and private gym and didn't badger them for a week. It gave them the downtime and privacy that they both needed, so that when Bucky stepped out of the shower with loose sleep pants on and no shirt a week to the day of the explosion, Steve finally realized what he'd been missing. Steve's own name ran almost from Bucky's neck down the length of his flesh and blood bicep, still as bright as Steve remembered. The other… the metal arm hid all but a very recognizable "D" followed by an "a".

"You have her name," Steve murmured, standing up suddenly from the couch. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten to check, but Bucky was still twitchy about the prosthetic and they'd both had a lot on their minds. There hadn't been any true downtime until now.

Bucky paused before realizing what Steve was talking about and glanced over at his right shoulder. "Who is it?"

Steve yanked up his shirt to show Bucky his. "Darcy Lewis. I haven't found her yet."

Bucky was still touch-shy after everything, but his broad fingers tentatively traced the name on Steve's hip, outlining the same bold "D" that matched the one peeking above his metal shoulder. "Darcy Lewis," he murmured softly, tasting the name.

"Didn't I say we'd find her together one day?" Steve teased, feeling a flush of arousal run through him as Bucky bit his lip to think.

"We promised… to make it up to her," he replied slowly as he recalled those moments lying in bed together. His fingers continued to trail south, remembering what came after those words.

"Yeah," Steve agreed breathily, feeling his cock jump a bit in the loose sweats as Bucky's fingers grazed him purposefully. "C'mere." Steve drew Bucky into a kiss that was messy and wet and perfect. Bucky was still a lot of hard edges, but Steve couldn't really complain when it translated into rough but amazing sex—their enhanced libido helped too.

Bucky's metal hand squeezed his name on Steve's hip as he took control of the kiss and devoured Steve, pushing him back into the couch until Bucky could straddle him for maximum leverage. Gone were their sweatpants and Steve's t-shirt in a hurry, and then their cocks were rubbing and leaking all over each other. Steve was groaning with his head thrown back as Bucky nipped and bit along his throat and pumped them together in his hand, rubbing the sensitive heads against each other until Steve came undone with Bucky's name a groan on his lips. Bucky followed a moment later with a hiss against Steve's skin, and they both sat for a moment splattered in cum and sated. Steve had a sudden longing to hold someone on his lap as Bucky backed out of his arms and went to wash off. Maybe one day soon he'd have Darcy Lewis filling them.

* * *

"Hill's here already like I told you, and Jarvis is setting Romanov up with fake IDs as we speak…" Tony said as he wheeled around to give Bucky a look over the top of his sunglasses. "Might need to do you as well…"

This was Bucky and Tony's first meeting since Steve had hustled Bucky into the Tower and they'd lied low and gotten themselves settled over the last week. Tony's abrasiveness wasn't doing him any favors in winning over Bucky. "We're not working for you, Tony," Steve reminded him.

"Right, right, but you and the rest of the Avengers need a base of operations and I've already got one bird living here so what's another?" Sam snorted from where he walked behind Steve and Bucky getting his first tour of the Tower too. "Thor's already hanging around since we got Foster and her spitfire intern. Hope you don't like Pop-tarts because we go through them like Katniss goes through arrows."

They passed through a communal kitchen and media setup that was as over the top and specially reinforced as money could buy. That was one benefit to moving into Tony's outrageous tower: between Steve's super strength and Bucky's arm all the counters, appliances, and doorknobs had been dented or outright broken in Steve's old place.

"Natalia," Bucky said as Natasha appeared in the doorway of one of the side rooms.

"James," she greeted. "Rogers, and the new guy, Falcon."

"Been awhile, how are ya?" Sam said. His good attitude and background in psychology had done wonders bringing Bucky in—even if Bucky had broken his arm and smashed two sets of wings in the process.

"Heard you come in last night. Didn't know you were here too though," Natasha said, nodding at Sam.

"Yeah right," Tony snorted while Sam told her how Hydra had been casing his hotel room after the explosion at Steve's and he'd wound up here too. "We're trying to get Banner," Tony continued as they left Sam and Natasha behind. "Last word was he was dealing with the Ebola outbreak. Not in such a hurry to get him back now."

"Tony! Thor's back and demanding pizza bagels," said a startlingly pretty girl from the kitchen. She had thick-framed glasses sliding down her nose, big soft curls, and curves like one of the old pin-up girls in the magazines Bucky used to bring back on a lark. Steve almost expected Bucky to whistle lowly behind him, but there was still too much of the Winter Soldier in him to do that.

"Good thing someone went to Costco then," Tony said, pointing at the oversized freezer. "And by someone I mean a lackey. If you think feeding this many is already a challenge, now there's two more superhuman metabolisms." He jerked his thumb back at Steve and Bucky casually.

"Oh," the girl said, suddenly realizing who else was standing by the counter into the kitchen. "Hi I'm—"

"-Jane Foster's wrangler. Didn't I tell you not to bring Apple things into my house? It messes with my concentration," Tony said, waving his hand at the bedazzled box in her hand.

She harrumphed. "Give me a better one and I will. And it better be iTunes compatible."

"Not if you're using iTunes. No Apple. Does everyone have selective hearing?"

"No way, all my playlists are on iTunes," she complained. Whatever Tony was going to say was cut off by Sam's offer to help her with the pizza bagels. She stuck her tongue out at Tony as she walked away, and Steve had to swallow the image of kissing those pouty lips. He glanced at Bucky guiltily, but Bucky's gaze was fixed on the swing of her hips.

* * *

That was pretty much how all of Steve and Bucky's interactions with her went—brief, unsatisfying, and laced with sexual tension on the guy's parts. Bucky even mentioned how her figure stirred memories of other dames he'd been with, which pleased Steve. (Getting pounded into the mattress after dirty talk of what Bucky'd like to _do_ to that figure was even better even if Steve felt vaguely guilty the next time he walked by her in the hallway.)

They only saw her sporadically because she didn't live in the Tower and didn't go up to the common area much. Three weeks after moving in, Bucky was watching Mary Poppins with Clint (Clint insisted he'd lost a bet and not because he liked the movie) when she had walked by.

"Hey Arrow, you the one that hit Dum-E with a Nerf gun and made it cry?"

"Don't know what you're talking about, Jugs," Clint said without looking away from the screen and she hit him with the book in her hand.

"Don't ever watch action movies with this guy—he'll ruin them all," she said to Bucky like he wasn't a recently deprogrammed assassin whose fingers still twitched for a gun whenever he saw someone. She walked away before he could ask what prompted that.

The next time either of them saw her in more than passing was two months later when Steve was in the kitchen trying to figure out what the difference between pulse, blend, mix, and fourteen other settings meant on the blender. She walked in with her cell phone to her ear chatting. She glanced at the array of fruit, said "Smoothie?" without waiting for an answer, helpfully cut the banana he'd been holding into pieces, tossed it into the blender almost without looking, put the lid on, took his hand and stuck it on top, paused for a moment in her conversation to say "HOLD" to him loudly, then hit puree. His hand felt hot after her touch.

When his smoothie was sufficiently blended and she'd gotten her complicated coffee from the pot—all without stopping for breath to talk on the phone—he turned to her. "Thank you. …Uh, I don't know your-"

Steve didn't even get to finish the question because she was already walking out with one hand waving in the air.

The next time Bucky had words with her resulted in wall-sex with Steve in the training room. Bucky had gone looking for someone to help him get Tony's attention after the genius locked himself in his lab and turned AC/DC up so high it would make any enhanced ears bleed. He ran into Thor in the corridor between labs.

"My lightening sister would be of service! I believe she has a strong relationship with the one they call Jarvis," Thor declared.

"Your sister? From Asgard?" Bucky asked after a moment imagining a female Thor.

"Nay, she is of Midgar and a good friend of my beloved. Lady D—"

"Dick! Asshole!" Someone screamed cutting off Thor. "I'm gonna kill you, Clint!"

Bucky and Thor could only watch as a water-splattered woman in a white shirt burst out of Jane's lab. Her glasses were askew and her hair soaked like someone had dumped a bucket on her.

"The Soldier of Winter requires your assistance D—"

"Not now Thor. Unless you know where Clint is."

Bucky could hear Clint's breathing in the air duct behind him and knew he'd get soaked too if he said anything. When both men remained mute she huffed and stalked to the elevator, jamming her finger on the button at least a dozen times until it dinged open.

When the doors had closed, Thor turned to him apologetically. "We may wait for her return or perhaps I can convince the Man of Iron to open his gates?"

"Yeah, maybe the Hammer will get him to open up," Bucky muttered, trying and failing to remove the image of her purple bra visible through her wet blouse from his mind. When he and Thor failed to get Tony's attention, Bucky left to find Steve and slam him up against a wall.

* * *

Darcy only saw a little of Captain America or the formerly-Winter-Soldier after they moved in because she only went to the communal kitchen when they ran out of Pop-Tarts in the labs, and the labs were a place those scientifically enhanced men generally avoided. Bucky because of his history, Rogers because of Tony. It was just like Tony to cockblock her from ogling without even trying. At least Thor came by even if he was untouchable. Barnes and Rogers weren't touchable either because history had gotten something right: those two were soulmates and as every tabloid said, the romance of the ages. Not that Darcy read tabloids or anything.

"Lady Darcy! It is good to see you once more!" Thor boomed as though he hadn't said the same thing last week. He came even more often, if possible, now that all the Avengers had been brought together. It had taken four months and Steve's personal assurance before Banner had moved in, completing the group. "I have seen Son of Coul this day!"

"Yeah, he's been drooling over Captain Apple Pie upstairs." Pity she wasn't there too.

Thor turned to talk with Jane, and Darcy went back to color-coding Excel files for the hell of it. Sometimes she had a lot of work and sometimes she didn't. Usually she didn't, but then she was making coffee runs, stacking papers, and improving the rubber-band gun (and reading tabloids).

"Hey Lewis!" Tony called from the hallway. He'd stopped mid-step like something had occurred to him. "You got two names?"

"No?" she answered. Unlike seemingly everyone else in the building she didn't have an alias and she actually didn't have a middle name either. Her mother hadn't believed in them, just like she didn't believe in shoes for those six months that one time. Her mother was a bit odd.

"Huh. Thought I saw 'Lewis' on our national treasure upstairs."

Darcy tried to remember if she'd spray-painted anything of Tony's recently. Sometimes she messed with his stuff, but there's no way she'd touch anything of Steve's. They'd said a few words in passing but nothing much, and while Bucky was super hot too—and she'd had some dangerous thoughts about that arm—he was also intimidating. He'd gotten a lot less broody in the six months or so they'd been living here, but he still got that distant Winter Soldier look sometimes.

Darcy shrugged off Tony's behavior because that was hardly the weirdest thing he'd ever done and went back to work.

* * *

"Whoo man, you gotta have a second set o' lungs," Sam wheezed three days after Tony's impromptu question to Darcy. The Falcon trained with Bucky and Steve sometimes if Clint was busy, but as he joked, the serum left him a mile behind.

"Yeah, but your defense isn't easy to get through," Steve complimented as the pounding from the punching bags behind them stopped. Bucky was breathing hard after pummeling the hell out of one so hard the stuffing was coming out. Stark was starting to complain about how many they went through.

The three of them cooled down before heading to the communal kitchen for drinks. Sam had his special orange juice energy mix he made that Bucky had become addicted to, and now that Steve had gotten the hang of the blender he'd mastered the art of the protein smoothies. Tony was already there, waiting for something to finish cooking, and he wrinkled his nose a bit at the three sweaty guys joining him.

"How are the new wings coming?" Sam asked as he poured the energy drinks and Steve rustled together ingredients.

"Being painted now. Hope you like red and gold," Tony said with a smirk.

"I was thinking more red and white actually, but hell, I ain't paying for them. When can I try them?" Sam asked.

"Soon as they're dry. Jarvis?"

"Four hours, sir," came the cultured voice from a hidden speaker. Tony raised as eyebrow as though to say, _see? I'm awesome_ even though that was his default expression.

"I can push you off the roof if you want to test them," Bucky offered.

Sam snorted. "I'm good man, really. Though practicing some mid-air throws I could definitely do if you're down to get bruised."

"Only dollface can bruise me," Bucky said deadpan, jerking his head at Steve.

Sam groaned. "I'd say TMI, dude—"

"TMI," Tony said helpfully as the microwave dinged.

"—But soulmate healing can be real helpful. That's all I'm gonna say about it."

Steve smiled without meaning to and pulled up his sweaty tank to wipe his face. Tony abruptly yelped and dropped whatever was in his hands to point at Steve's exposed hip. "You totally do have Lewis on you!"

"Stark?" Bucky said sounding a little gravely. He was a bit defensive of their soulmarks, particularly Darcy Lewis' name because he didn't have most of it on himself. The tail end of "Darcy" and the surname were visible above the waistband of Steve's sweatpants.

"Lewis. You got Barnes and you got Lewis," Tony said in his I'm-a-genius tone. "And that's definitely a 'c' and a 'y'. Why has no one said anything? You can't possibly be keeping it secret. I haven't heard anything. And neither has Jarvis. Jarvis?"

"Privacy protocols, sir," Jarvis said politely.

"Override."

"Ms. Lewis, Captain Rogers, and Sergeant Barnes do not appear to be paramours, sir."

"See. So how? Second apartment? All those coffee breaks she takes a euphemism? That scarf with the hammer on it—"

"What are you talking about? You know a Lewis?" Steve interjected. Bucky had crossed his arms and was standing slightly in front of Steve, bodily blocking Tony's view of her name.

"Doesn't everyone?" At Bucky and Steve's straight faces Tony looked even more surprised. "You know, the intern with the killer rack and the taser? Foster's babysitter? You ate her leftover burnt pancakes this morning before she took the good ones downstairs to feed the Pop-tart God."

It took Steve a second to realize that he knew exactly who Tony was talking about—the same girl he and Bucky had guiltily brought up more than once in a private moment; the one he thought of when people asked what girls in his day had been like. (Except the cursing, but she was the definition of moxie otherwise.)

"What's her name?" Steve asked sharply. Bucky was frowning very hard now and Steve was sure he was thinking the same thing. Was their soulmate really three floors under their nose?

"Darcy Lewis."

Bucky was already moving before the last syllable was out. "Bucky wait!" Steve called, barely hearing Tony commenting to a very confused Sam, "How did they not know? Seriously, how? How does _she_ not know? Jarvis, are you recording this?"

"We should clean up or something," Steve tried as they got into the elevator. Bucky had already hit the button for the labs though.

"She's been here all along. I thought…" Bucky shook his head. "I thought it was weird how we both… damn…"

Steve flushed a little, rather embarrassed about how he and Bucky had…"admired" the intern's—no, _Darcy's_ —curves. She'd been… what was the word she'd used for him once? Eye-sweets? No, eye-candy. She'd been eye-candy, but now…

The thought of running his hands along those curves, kissing those red lips, drawing her profile lying on their bed naked…

"Why didn't she say something?" Bucky said, shattering Steve's thoughts. Why _hadn't_ she, he realized? All thoughts of drawing her post-coital in Bucky's arms disappeared. Did she not want…? Didn't she know with their names on her? Or was their girl a different Darcy Lewis?

"We need to gather intel first," Steve said just as the doors opened on the R&D levels. "It might not be her, or…"

"Yeah right," Bucky muttered, "not the girl you've been drawing on and off for months." Bucky made to stalk out of the elevator before Steve grabbed his arm.

"We do this right, Bucky." If she was their Darcy then they had to make a good impression. Steve absolutely didn't want to bungle this up.

"We have to know first, Steve," Bucky countered. He was always the one closer to the edge, and that girl's—no, _Darcy's_ —looks had always done it. Bucky wasn't wasting time when their girl had been a slow burn under his skin for the last six months.

They both had a stubborn tilt to their jaw as they stared one another down. Neither of them knew that Darcy had stopped in the middle of the hallway to stare at them too.

"You guys comin' or goin', because I got some thirty-pound boxes that aren't moving themselves."

Both heads whipped around to stare at her. When no one responded she sighed and popped one hip. "I meant, are either of you going to help me carry them?"

Darcy couldn't know that she was the one seemingly short-circuiting their brains. Steve and Bucky weren't sure how she could act so calm when literally the other thirds of her soul were right there. Unless it wasn't her at all. Seeing her standing there in a red sweater that hugged her curves and a tumble of curls under a knit cap, she looked beautiful.

"I'll get it," Steve managed finally when she started to chew her lip in an especially distracting way, and he squeezed Bucky's hand warningly as he went toward her. For once Bucky obeyed and didn't say what he was obviously burning to.

Darcy made sure to give her back to Barnes when Steve stepped over to the boxes so she could properly admire Steve's arms as they flexed when he lifted. She didn't want to piss off the Winter Soldier by outright ogling his soulmate, but did they _really_ have to walk around wearing tank tops and too-small t-shirts? Darcy ruined enough underwear thinking about it, and it was hard enough right now not to reach out and touch the curve of that tricep.

The two boys kept shooting looks at each other, which made Darcy wonder what she'd interrupted, and then they made a strategic retreat hastened by Steve. Darcy watched them go out of the corner of her vision, wishing she'd stopped herself from watching how the metal arm moved seamlessly with the muscle of Barnes' back, because damn she was going to have to wait another forty minutes before she could get home to her trusty vibrator. Even so, their manner had been wrong somehow, maybe from that argument in the elevator.

"Did they seem off to you?"

"Who, Banner?"

"Bucky Bear and the Star Spangled Man." Banner had been by six hours ago.

"No."

Jane's word wasn't worth much since she hadn't even noticed them come and go. So Darcy shrugged and decided that maybe they just a little off today.

* * *

"How come you're not hitting that? Or are you seriously not—" Tony called frankly half an hour later before Pepper stormed down the hall and grabbed him by the ear and hauled him back to the elevators.

Darcy wanted to ask what the hell Tony was talking about, but she wasn't going to bother the Queen of Amazing Shoes when she had that look on her face.

"Okay, everyone's weird today," she said to herself and decided to turn her music up to wall out the world.

* * *

"It must not be her," Steve muttered, running a hand through his hair. Bucky was sitting on the couch, legs spread, watching him pace. He looked a lot calmer than he actually felt; the old Bucky's knee would have been jumping in place. "What are the chances of that?"

He and Bucky had both grown up with stories about how fate brought soulmates together; that going your whole life without meeting a clear soulmark was impossible. So how could they be wrong? They'd been going back and forth for the last two hours trying to figure out if this could be _their_ Darcy and if so why she hadn't said anything about their names—not even treated them any differently from the other Avengers.

"Darcy Lewis' files," Bucky said, coming to some decision. "Jarvis?"

"Privacy protocols prevent that information from being shared, sir."

"Gimme Nat's files then. Any that mention Lewis."

Two minutes later Bucky had Darcy Lewis the intern's files projected on the far wall.

Steve squirmed a moment in place, torn between wanting to know and invading her privacy. Bucky put a hand on his knee as Steve finally gave in and sat down. "We should just ask her," he said in a pathetic attempt to justify his guilt.

Bucky scrolled past her birth certificate and social security card quickly. "This in intel gathering. Just wanna see if there's a note about any marks."

After five minutes of scrolling through high school grades, college test scores, and a slew of ophthalmologist records, an old scan of a pediatrician's notes came up.

"Darcy Lewis: two marks, upper back," Bucky said, tone carefully held in check. "At age eight still unclear. Likely to clarify soon."

Both of them took a moment to breathe and savor the knowledge. Two unclear marks on her back—if they'd never been clear it was probably because both of them had been on ice. But if they said Steve and Bucky's name, how could she have not noticed?

The door banged open as that exact thought crossed both their minds.

"I figured it out," Tony announced. He smelled like alcohol but his gaze was crystal clear and painfully smug. "All it took was a bottle of rum. As payment _you_ —" Tony said, pointing at Bucky—"are going to let me tinker with that arm. And _you_ —" he switched to pointing at Steve—"are going to go to Alexander Pierce's niece's birthday party instead of me because I skipped it last year and even though the guy was a Hydra agent that little girl cried for hours, or so I'm told."

"Two marks on her back," Bucky said, stealing the limelight and derailing Tony's demands. The doctor's note was blown up on the wall behind them.

"Okay, I won't remove the entire arm to play with it," Tony acquiesced reluctantly, "but you don't have the picture."

Tony perhaps didn't realize how close he was to being wrestled to the ground and his phone broken when he showed them the picture. It was Darcy all right, the spill of her curls and the red nail polish were undeniable. She had pulled her shirt up to her neck, high enough to reveal the back of a lacy pink bra and two names running on either side of her spine starting from almost the back of her neck: Steven Rogers and James Barnes.

Tony pressed some button and abruptly the image moved. "You haven't looked at these?" came Stark's incredulous voice over the recording.

"It's just depressing," she said a bit muffled as she pulled the shirt back down. When she turned it was revealed she was sporting a Hulk t-shirt that said "SMASH" in huge green letters on the front. In her hand was a tumbler of rum. "Plus I need about five mirrors to read it."

"The matter of this discussion is something I am curious about," Thor said suddenly and the camera swung to him.

"Just my lost boys," Darcy said with a sigh before flopping down backwards on the couch behind her. Her shirt was still rucked up a bit showing off a pale strip of skin.

The video cut out at that point and Stark looked suitably proud of himself. "I expect the first kid to be named Tony."

Bucky pushed Tony back into the wall hard enough to rattle his teeth. "You got our girl drunk and made her lift her shirt?"

"Hey hey, Thor was there too so nothing happened. Call it a science experiment. If I see long odds I have to know if it's possible. And I was right: that's the right Darcy Lewis—your luck isn't so bad you'd meet one of the sixty-one Darcy Lewis' on the continent and it be the wrong one."

Steve dragged Bucky away from Tony before he could do something unfixable to the man. Darcy drunk with Jane and Thor was probably a bad time to reveal the truth, but Bucky didn't look like he was going to wait.

They found her two floors down in the media room with Thor and Jane watching Monty Python and trying to explain what "violence inherit in the system" meant amid laughter. Thor mostly looked amused by Jane's bumbling attempts to pour more rum as Darcy quoted alongside the movie.

"Ah! The Captain and his wintery mate have come to join us!" Thor cheered, downing another glass of rum. There were three empty bottles scattered about, and Steve sincerely hoped that had mostly been Thor's doing.

"Stars and Stripes and the Bionic Arm?" said a curious voice from the couch. Darcy peaked her head over the cushions from where she'd been sitting on the floor. "Rum?"

Bucky took her proffered glass and downed it in one go, then took the bottle from her and gave it to Thor. "You're done."

"You're not my mom," she retorted as Bucky carefully used his natural arm to hoist her up. Darcy grabbed at his metal one though to steady herself, which made Bucky's prosthetic fingers flex automatically—most people avoiding touching the arm at all. "And I haven't had that much." She was slurring a bit though.

"Darcy, uh, let's get you home," Steve said, trying out her name for the first time. His tongue knew it from hundreds of repetitions, but to say it to her was remarkable.

She smiled at him, and Steve felt his heart rate pick up. How had he and Bucky never realized before?

"Since you're asking, Handsome Pants," she said, walking forward with more surety than Steve expected. That is until she hit her leg on the corner of the couch and tripped into Bucky. Bucky swung her into his arms before she could stop him, which made Thor stand up.

"I shall return her to her abode if Darcy is in need," the demigod said with a hint of warning.

"It's okay Thor. We actually want to talk to her, but maybe tomorrow," Steve said, but he realized quickly Thor's sense of propriety wasn't going to let Steve and Bucky take her away alone. "We're uh," Steve glanced back quickly to see Bucky leaving the room. "We're her soulmates, and we want to take care of her."

"What?" Jane yelped, head popping up from the couch.

"Are you truly, Captain of the land of America?" Steve awkwardly lifted his shirt and tugged down his sweatpants a hint so her name was visible. Thor strode forward in two steps and clapped him on the shoulder. "Congratulations are in order then, Captain! We shall drink to your good fortune, and I bid you treat Darcy with all the respect of a lady of Asgard." He offered the rum bottle to Steve.

"Sure, of course. Maybe that drink another night?"

Thor knocked back the rum in the bottle—thankfully not much, but several shots worth—before cheerfully picking up Jane. Steve left them to it and hurried to catch up.

"So see, in other countries they use propaganda to keep the common man ignorant, and here we label—" Darcy was saying to Bucky and waving her hands to gesture. She talked all the way up to their floor but her train of thought kept wavering and her hands kept grazing Steve and Bucky's arms and shoulders. Steve was pretty sure they were distracting her and he was even surer he didn't care. Bucky's charming smile was sliding into lecherous territory.

"Wait, my apartment isn't in the Tower," she said as Bucky put her down in one of the spare bedrooms. She looked around curiously until she frowned. "And there's not a single spangled thing in here. I'm gonna lose that bet with Amy in HR."

"A bet?" Steve had to ask as Bucky went to get a glass of water and Darcy adjusted her glasses.

"Yeah," Darcy said distractedly, her gaze landing somewhere around his abs. If she reached out and touched them Steve wasn't sure what he would do. She wetted her lips before tearing her gaze away, and Steve chastised himself for feeling disappointed. "Where's Jane?"

"She's with Thor. Drink up," Bucky answered as he walked in, using the same tone he'd taken with sickly Steve once upon a time. He squatted down to help her take off her shoes; shoulders muscled in between her legs. She went a bit cross-eyed at the sight before shooting an apologetic smile at Steve. The way her gaze had raked Bucky made him feel the exact opposite of jealous; it was a good thing his sweatpants were loose.

They didn't let her sleep until she'd had two glasses of water, and she complained the entire time about mother hens. When they did finally let her lay down she fell asleep almost immediately, and the two found boys sat down on the sofa in the other room and just looked at one another.

"Told you we'd find her together."

"Keeping her's the hard part, kid."

* * *

Darcy miraculously woke with only a small headache in a bed three hundred times more comfortable than her own. It took her a few moments to get around the dryness of her mouth, fumble for her glasses, and figure out how someone had changed her sheets into ten billion-thread-count without her waking up.

 _Wait…_ Did Captain America and Bucky Barnes seriously take care of her drunk ass and then put her to bed? Had they made out in the elevator or had she dreamed that? Darcy tended to have vivid dreams after drinking, and those two hunks and her imagination meant she didn't know where the line was anymore. _Shit_.

"You're awake," a national icon said, wearing an indecently tight shirt. It was way too early in the morning for those pecs and Darcy still wasn't sure if she'd seen him shirtless or not last night. "Need medicine?"

"Yeah, maybe," she managed, mouth feeling like she'd sucked on old socks and no doubt her makeup was all smeared and her hair sticking up every which way. One hand under the covers confirmed her panties were still on and no sign of fun times down there, so she hadn't done irreparable harm to her non-existent relationship with Cap and Sarge at least. Still, Steve was giving her a look as he handed her the pills that made her self-conscious, and was that a hicky on his neck?

She groaned. Darcy hated rum, why had she drunk rum? "Why the hell was Stark giving us rum?"

"Uh…" Steve went a little pink and his eyes skittered away, and Darcy genuinely feared that she'd molested the guy now. She might have been thinking about it for the last six months, but she drew the line at married men—or in love with their soulmates or whatever.

 _Way to go Darcy. Hit on Captain America in front of his assassin soulmate who could kill you with his pinky_ and _lives where you work._

"Thanks for… last night," she said, twisting the sheets in her left. At least Captain America's patented disappointed face wasn't aimed at her yet. "Uh… rum is not my first choice because it makes me sorta crazy so if I did anything it's kinda Stark's fault but also mine…" she rambled, wincing as Steve watched her through all of this. This wasn't the most awkward situation she'd had after a crazy night, but this was also the most awkward situation she'd been in after the most _not_ crazy night. Seriously, she'd gotten drunk at basically her workplace with her boss and done nothing but watch a movie. And possibly molest a superhero.

They both spoke at the same time.

"I didn't—I mean—"

"There's something we should—"

They both cut out, and that was when Bucky made his appearance. Darcy quickly downed the ibuprofen just in case she needed to make a run for it.

"It's important we talk to you because there's… well…" Steve fumbled for the words, and Darcy felt more and more sure that her dream of running her hands up and down that ridiculous chest had been real.

"Can I just apol—"

"Buck and I talked and we don't mean to spring it on you but—"

And then the Avengers Assemble alarm went off.

Bucky cursed in Russian, Steve's brows furrowed with frustration, and Darcy breathed a sigh of relief because this awkward situation? She was literally saved by the bell—or alarm, whatever, she wasn't picky. Normally she'd feel guilty for being relieved someone else in the world was in trouble, but this was extraordinary circumstances.

"After work we should all do dinner," Steve said at the same time Darcy opened her mouth to make her excuses but she was cut off by Bucky abruptly grabbing Steve's shirt and yanking it up. He even tucked a hand in the waistband of his sweats so her quintessential loopy "D" was clear.

"Check your marks, Darcy babe, because we've got your name and Stark got you drunk to check yours."

Steve turned with a growl that would probably have made Darcy wet if she hadn't been sitting there in total shock because 1) Steve's abs were just as ridiculous as she imagined, and 2) that was totally her name in her handwriting on Steve's v-line.

"I'm still drunk," she murmured to herself because THAT was about the last thing she expected to see. Everyone knew Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were soulmates, but a third? A third being _her?!_

 _And why the hell was_ Stark _getting me drunk to see my marks?_

"Doll, you're not drunk," Bucky said, tugging into place his bulletproof vest and combat boots, bag slung over his shoulder. Time was doing that weird speeding up and slowing down for Darcy.

"Check them," Steve added, somehow already in his suit. She could never get her jeggings on as fast as he did that spandex. "And when we're back we'll do dinner. Properly." Bucky turned to go, but Steve lingered a second longer like he wanted to say more.

Darcy finally spit out words. "So if I molested you last night that was okay?"

Steve barked a laugh, looking relieved. "Anytime is okay. And you didn't by the way."

"You looked though!" Bucky yelled back, and Steve gave her a heartbreaking smile as he nodded goodbye and jogged out. Darcy was left sitting in the guestroom in her clothes from yesterday and shoeless.

The moment the elevators doors shut she sprang into the bathroom and yanked off her t-shirt, twisting in the mirror to see the words that had always been scribbles on her back. Even though the letters were backwards and sideways, and even though it was giving her a crick in her neck, there were two names where before there had been just blurs: Steven Rogers and James Barnes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy climbs through ceilings and Bucky convinces Steve dating can happen after sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a good chunk of a totally normal dinner date with Steve, Darcy, & Bucky written, and then I went to sleep and thought that is sooooo boring. Then I went climbing into my attic for cat supplies and this is what happened. Also there's no pretending this story wasn't about smut from the start. I feel like they might be OOC and if they are I'm sorry.

Nothing like soulmates will throw a wrench in your day. Darcy hadn't woken up to that soulmate revelation until ten a.m. and she was supposed to start work around 9ish—if she was getting coffee for Jane she could fudge it and get there at 9:30. So she was officially late.

She also didn't have any new clothes, so she'd have to spend the whole day living up a walk of shame (except no sexytimes had happened and her hunky soulmates—she had take a few extra breaths when she thought that—hadn't touched her).

And she had to figure out how the hell to not lose her cool when they came back from Avengering.

Yeah, there was no way she was going to work.

"Jane, it's Darcy. I gotta take a mental health day because I think I've shifted dimensions."

"Sure," Jane said somewhat distractedly. "Oh, congrats on the whole soulmate thing." There were clicking noises in the background and then the sound of a drill. Tony would be by later to cry if she was building her own machinery. Jane was independent and Stark was egotistical like that.

"Uh thanks. How do you know?"

"Thor."

"Of course." Stupid question really. "Well I'm gonna… go freak out somewhere."

"Yeah sure," Jane said, definitely not listening anymore. Darcy hung up and just stared at her phone. Rummaging through people's stuff was bad, but she was kind of hungry and she sort of had a right now, didn't she?

…Yeah she totally did. She'd double-checked the marks at least three times since waking up and spent twenty minutes trying to get a picture with her phone (it was crooked, but clear as day) so it was in stone; or rather skin.

She found bagels and cream cheese in the kitchen and helped herself, intrigued that the place wasn't an absolute pig-sty and that the microwave looked utterly spotless—probably hadn't been used at all. As Darcy munched she casually wandered around the apartment, noticing the top-of-the-line gym and weight set-up (no weights under fifty pounds from the looks of it), the classy living room and oversized TV, a second spare room that had a table covered in sketches on it, a small armory in another room, and then she stumbled on the master bedroom.

King-size bed? Check. Clothing on the floor? Check. Panorama view of New York? Check. Smelled like Steve's amazing cologne? Hell yes.

Darcy eyed the bed and the ruffled sheets for several moments, and then put down her bagel and weird tasting orange juice. It was a huge bed and Stark probably hadn't spared any expense on it. She would just be testing what would hopefully be put into hard use soon…

Darcy backed up into the hallway, took a running start, and vaulted on to the bed.

"Fuck!" she yelled and rolled over, nursing her nose. The mattress was well past firm and into hard territory. Who slept on the equivalent of the ground?

"Goddamn frozen soldiers," she cursed as she stumbled out of the bed and took her breakfast into the master bathroom so she could make sure she hadn't given herself a bloody nose. She had to stop dead in the doorway through because there was an absurdly huge bathtub and shower set-up that was just begging to be used.

Her shower in her tiny studio apartment barely fit her. This one? Well, all three of them were gonna fit just fine.

Unfortunately she couldn't find any decent shampoo or conditioner and she almost cut her hand on a straight razor (who the hell uses those anymore? Oh wait, people from the '40s), and all the towels were in the hamper. So she huffed and headed home to shower and lay down on a proper, soft, _forgiving_ mattress.

* * *

While Darcy was face planting on his bed, Steve was lying in the dirt with Bucky trying very hard to focus on the surveillance and not on imagining what Darcy was doing at that exact moment. She must have woken up by now. Would she stay in their rooms? Go home and change? Did she want to do dinner? Was she as excited as Steve was?

It was hard to keep his mind on task when he and Bucky… they were finally complete. Bucky and Steve had always been together, but the lack of the third had been painfully obvious sometimes. When they fought with each other it was a days-long ordeal; when Steve wanted to cuddle Bucky wanted a quickie and a run; when Bucky wanted to go dancing and drinking Steve dragged his feet. Every soulmate pairing had their ups and downs but… Steve _knew_ inside him Darcy was the missing piece between them.

He could bury his face in her hair when he wanted to punch Bucky. Bucky could flirt and leer at her when he wanted to show off. Steve could tuck her under his arm and Bucky could whip her around the dance floor.

"It's not gonna be all roses," Bucky said suddenly, interrupted Steve's admittedly rosy dream of the future as he looked up from the scope. He had a way of telling when Steve was daydreaming like that. "Hydra's not gonna take my defection gracefully, and the serum is still popular stuff. She'll be a target."

Steve locked his jaw. "That doesn't mean we don't deserve the same happiness as everyone else. You especially."

Bucky rolled his eyes and automatically leaned over to punch Steve before he paused and started to pull his arm back.

"It's fine Buck," Steve sighed, and he pulled Bucky's hand toward him. He just laced their fingers together for a moment before letting go. "Just want to get back to her. Waiting and not knowing what she thinks is worse."

"I'm not worrying about that," Bucky said, winking at Steve. "I know our girl's been thinkin' about us. Now think about how that dinner's gonna end."

"…You guys know your comms are still on, right?" Barton's voice came slowly across the line.

"I'm happy to speculate about how to get into All About the Bass' pants," Tony added, and even though neither Bucky nor Steve understood what he'd called Darcy, there was the audible crunching sound of Bucky crushing something in his metal fist. Tony got the message.

"I believe it is more satisfying to see your soulmate wear your own clothing," Thor added, missing the metaphor entirely. "Or wear clothing with your visage upon it. I am sure Lady Darcy could be convinced to relinquish her clothing with Banner painted upon it."

Steve's eyes were almost comically wide as he imagined Darcy in some of the women's underwear with his shield on it that Tony had shown him. He absolutely did not need a hard-on in his skintight suit. Bucky was looking at him curiously.

"Her favorite food is Italian," Natasha added after a moment. "It heats up well too if you don't finish it."

The only time Steve didn't finish food was when he was interrupted. The way Bucky's gaze flickered pointedly down to his crotch said everything about what sort of interruptions.

"Just be respectful of her and remember that she's coming into two soulmates already together—it's hard being the last to join. That's all I'm gonna say," Sam finished with. Steve pulled his cowl off to rub at his hair embarrassedly at the team's input.

"Indeed," Thor continued, voice a rumble. "Even soulmates can mistreat one another. You are my shieldbrothers, and Darcy is capable with her chosen weapon, but I will be most unhappy if she is not treated well."

Steve opened his mouth to assure Thor he and Bucky wanted nothing more than Darcy's happiness, but everyone was jumping on the bandwagon now. "Oh are we doing this? The shovel talk?" Tony interrupted excitedly. "I'll build her a taser strong enough to knock you down, Cap."

"I know how snipers think," Clint added.

Natasha said something in Russian that made Bucky twitch before rolling his eyes to pretend like he was unbothered.

Steve sighed audibly. "We don't want to mess this up either. We're just going to do dinner and take it slow."

"Sure, Capsicle, sure," Tony muttered sarcastically. Steve shot Bucky an exasperated look, but Bucky's gaze just flicked down to Steve's groin and up again pointedly.

* * *

It was kind of miraculous actually that she didn't have her real freak out until she was staring at her closet and wondering what the hell she was going to wear when they had this "proper dinner" Steve had mentioned. Was a dress too much? Jeans too casual? T-shirt with The Avengers on it going to weird him out?

Darcy just stared into the void that was her closet and then flipped open her phone again to look at the crooked picture of her marks. Steven Rogers. James Barnes. Just Captain America and the Howling Commando: Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier.

She swallowed before she straightened her spine. She'd tazed the God of Thunder! She'd helped set up a barrier sciency thing and saved London. She'd swindled Coulson out of her iPod! She could totally date Cap and Buck and not completely embarrass herself!

Pumped up now, Darcy grabbed one of her favorite outfits, put on some cute booties she didn't normally wear, and went to find the tallest coffee in the neighborhood.

* * *

Unfortunately her outfit was wasted because the Avengers didn't get back that night, so Darcy gave up waiting and ordered in Chinese and called Jane. The two girls flopped on the couch, put on some mindless movie, and eventually fell asleep like that. Darcy just praised every deity out there that Thor found them that way the next morning and not her newly discovered soulmates.

"Mmf, wha? Thor?" she mumbled, getting her glasses on and trying to sit up except that Jane was half-sprawled on top of her wrapped in the afghan. Good thing too because her skirt had ridden up to about her waist and there was hair in her mouth.

"Lady Darcy!" he called instead of boomed. This was Thor attempting to whisper. "We have returned and I have come to collect Jane. I have also been asked to query if you would join your soul pieces for dinner following work."

"Soul pieces?" she said confusedly. Thor got his huge arms around Jane and the blanket and hoisted her up all together. Darcy yanked her skirt down, not that Thor ever noticed.

"Aye, it is an Asgardian term for ones soulmates. The pieces of your soul."

"Pretty sure that sounds better in Asgardian," she said. She looked at the booties that had been breaking her toes yesterday and figured Steve and Bucky were going to have to like her no matter how she showed up. Frankly, she was hoping dinner was going to turn into an overnight thing, because seriously, six months of _having eyes_ and working at the Avengers tower had done a number on her libido.

* * *

Steve longed to pull Bucky's head into his shoulder, but this mission, while thankfully short, had forced Bucky to take two lives and that was still the kind of thing that could set him off. The Winter Soldier was flickering behind Bucky's gaze, and Steve was doing all he could to erase it.

"C'mon Buck, Jarvis ordered pizza from our favorite place. It's got a pig's worth of sausage on it just how you like."

Bucky didn't respond, but he flinched when Steve touched his shoulder. He had to consciously relax before taking Steve's hand in his own.

"…Sorry."

"Nah Bucky, you got nothing to be sorry for."

While Bucky went to get dressed, Steve yanked on a pair of boxer-briefs and got the pizza boxes from the front hall.

"Sir, Lord Thor is leaving for Ms. Lewis' apartment building," Jarvis chimed quietly.

"Thanks. Uh…" Steve glanced behind him at the hallway to the master suite and wondered if maybe they should wait on that dinner with Darcy. But Bucky had been so impatient before, and Steve didn't want to make Darcy (or himself) wait. It might be good for Bucky even. "Can you ask him to ask Darcy if she'd like to come to dinner tonight?"

"Of course, sir."

"Thanks," Steve said, still a little awkward about where exactly to direct his words. Tony and ironically Thor were the most natural when it came to Jarvis. Steve still had a habit of talking to the ceiling.

"Bucky?" he called when he put the pizzas in the kitchen. Usually the smell of food drew him out. "Buck?"

He checked three rooms before he found Bucky standing at the foot of the ruffled guest bed holding a familiar green t-shirt with the Hulk on the front. It was the one Darcy had been wearing yesterday under her sweater.

"I asked Darcy if she'd come tonight, if that's okay," Steve said, stepping into Bucky's line of sight.

"…She's coming?"

"Yeah, probably. We'll have to order in or cook something."

"I'll cook," Bucky said immediately, and he cracked a small smile. "You'll poison our girl."

"Hey, my food never killed you," Steve said, sounding more relieved than offended.

"You'll never woo a dame with that food," Bucky said nonetheless, shaking his head. He walked out carrying the t-shirt in his metal hand.

Steve followed after him with a smile on his face.

* * *

Darcy was so ready for this date. And by _so ready_ she meant that she'd been drumming Bohemian Rhapsody in double time all day and was really ready to stop. It was 5:23, so too early to leave now, but her eyes kept tracking the clock like the damn thing might skip a few minutes if she wasn't looking.

 _Breathe Darcy_ , she reminded herself, _you are super hot._ Andso were her soulmates. Who had also been together since the 1920s. She was kind of the third wheel awkwardly fitting to the axle. Did wheels fit on axles? Darcy could honestly say she'd never changed a tire before so she didn't really know.

"Hey Jane?" she asked, turning to her science buddy and boss who was currently… screwing in a light bulb. How shockingly normal. Questions about tires and axles flew out of Darcy's mind. "Guess that only takes one astrophysicist."

"Actually Darcy, this is attached to a whole system build to fortify the micros _somethingsciency_ waves generated by the _fifteensyllablelong_ machine in the ceiling that I've added. We've redirected electricity temporarily from the southern half to give it enough power to analyze the febricity of…" Jane's words dissolved into gobbledygook of science words even as she dragged Darcy to stand on a freakishly tall ladder under a ceiling tile that had been shifted to make a hole. "Can you get up there and connect the plugs? I'm gonna monitor the feed."

Those were the only words Darcy understood of all that. But she was damn good with plugs and she was pretty good with heights too. That's basically why she'd been hired.

"There aren't spiders up there, right?" Jane didn't answer, but as Darcy popped her head into the ceiling tiles she realized how clean it was. Did Clint come up here and sweep?

She hummed the Mission Impossible theme (Clint had totally ruined the movie for her by constantly interjecting facts, asshole) as she crawled over to the complicated machine that Jane had somehow gotten up here, likely with the help of Thor and his godly arms.

Darcy was scooting around the machine looking for the end of Plug B to connect to Plug A in her hand when something dangling caught her eye. It was an arm.

And it wasn't Clint's arm. She _knew_ Clint's arms thanks to his preference for sleeveless shirts and push-ups. That skinny, slightly bruised thing was not his.

She poked the tip of one finger, expecting the security dude to wake up instantly. But the finger was cold and weirdly stiff.

_No. No way._

Darcy started yelling. "Jane! Jane! There is totally a dead body up here! What the _hell_ were you doing, Jane? How the _fuck_ did nobody notice? Jane? JANE?"

There was the sound of Jane yelling something back and then the crash of what was totally the ladder. Fabulous. And these were only like 30ft ceilings to accommodate all the science and building happening. Darcy was stuck up here with a Very. Dead. Body. The sickening way it waved at her from her small poke was making Darcy's stomach want to turn itself inside out.

"Jarvis!" she tried not to scream, but it came out pretty shriek-y nonetheless. "Get me away from zombie dude before he turns because I am seriously freaking out right now. This is totally above my pay grade, I am a complete lackey, an intern, I do not deal with dead bodies, and oh my god the arm is swaying, it's moving, it's…"

"Ms. Lewis please remain calm," came the faint sound of Jarvis below her. His speakers weren't in the ceiling so that suave British voice wasn't doing much for her.

Darcy back-crawled as fast as she could, cursing herself for wearing super cute underwear because that meant she was the first to die in a horror movie, and… oh shit her date. Where the hell were the heroes when she needed them?

Darcy scooted so far back from the machine and body that she'd overshot her window down. Not that it mattered because the ladder was still on the floor.

"Darcy? Darcy you still there?" Jane yelled from below.

She banged on the ceiling tile under her hand. "Yes I am you bitch. Get me down!"

"I'm gonna get help. Stay there!"

"No no no don't leave! That's when I'll get eaten!" But Jane was definitely gone or not listening anymore. The ceiling was pretty dark, the only light coming from the open ceiling tile and the workman's string of lights attached the horrible machine that was looking more misshapen and menacing with every second.

There had to be another room she could crawl to. Stark had stuff piled up to the ceiling in his lab—surely these ceilings were connected.

She started crawling. Her knees were aching, palms sore, and she kind of shuffled so she wouldn't give her back to the dead body. She was so not blowing anybody tonight.

* * *

They dressed up a little and impatiently waited for 6 o'clock to roll around. Bucky was chopping up ingredients for pasta sauce and Steve was trying not be a nuisance in the kitchen but mostly just wandering around the apartment being a nuisance. He glanced at the clock: 5:41. He checked to make sure the living room was neatened up and moved a couple of the throw pillows for the third time before pulling out the wine (Tony had given it to him and said something about Pepper recommending it). Not that he could truly enjoy the affects, but this was dinner with their soulmate.

5:42.

Okay, maybe he was a little nervous.

Bucky's shoulders were stiff even as he flipped the knife deftly in his hand and rolled the onion on to the cutting board. Both of them were nervous. Telling Darcy the way they did might not have been the smartest, and they'd hardly made much of an impression in the last six months. This was their chance to do right by her.

Steve glanced at the stove clock again before rolling his shoulders and taking some breaths.

"Sir, there's been an incident in the labs."

Bucky had been mid-flip with the knife, and at Jarvis' interruption he caught it with his left and slammed it down through the onion and cutting board into the counter. Steve was standing at attention.

"Incident?"

"Ms. Lewis has discovered something in the ceiling and is currently trapped."

Steve remembered amazingly to turn off the heat on the stove before diving for his shield and following after Bucky into the elevator. They were zipped down express to the R&D floors where they found Jane yelling at Coulson.

"What do you mean he's on a mission? He knows the ceiling best!"

"Dr. Foster, Clint's whereabouts and timeline are classified, but I've already asked security to come and help you."

"Where is she?" Steve demanded, interrupting them.

"In the ceiling. She found a body," Jane said immediately, pushing past Coulson to point at the fallen ladder.

Bucky grimaced just the slightest before propelling himself into the lab. He righted the ladder easily and climbed up like a cat.

"Darcy?" Steve could hear him yelling as he waited below, ready to run off to some other spot in the room to catch her or climb up behind him if necessary. "Darcy?"

Unfortunately, Darcy didn't have super-hearing, and she was by now too far to hear them. She'd squeezed through some opening into the air vents Clint so liked and followed them down for a while, but they were ice cold and a lot darker. When she'd squeezed out she'd spotted another light off in the farthest corner of wherever she was, and there was no way in hell she was staying in the dark. It was getting dirtier though, which was gross and normally would have made her turn around, but she was also pretty sure she'd heard scuffling earlier and she was not risking a bloody death before she'd banged Captain America and Bucky Barnes—which was looking less and less likely today because she was going to show up for the date covered in ceiling dust and dead body cooties.

"Please be Tony's lab, please be Tony's lab…" she whispered, for once willing to be absolutely laughed at by Stark if it meant she'd get out of here. The little light in the corner grew brighter as she approached until she was holding it. "Hello gorgeous little… Christmas light?"

It was a single Christmas light from a string poked up into the ceiling with duck tape. What the hell?

Darcy shoved the ceiling tile away from it and discovered herself looking down on an office that someone had decorated with battery-powered Christmas lights. That was _so_ not regulation. She totally knew because she'd tried to do the same and Coulson had taken them down three times and confiscated them.

(She'd gotten them back like the iPod, but this time it was Thor's doing. His lightening sister could not be without her "twinkling stars"—he'd even sung the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" like she'd taught him because nothing would make Coulson bend faster than Thor's deafening singing voice.)

The ceiling was back to a standard 8ft or whatever at least, so with a bit of maneuvering, Darcy was able to sort of fall on to the desk. She knocked over the desktop, which was bad, but she just lied there on the floor and caught her breath while she kept one eye out for a terrifying face from the ceiling. This was totally the moment in the horror movie when you thought you were safe but you weren't, Darcy knew, because she stayed up late scaring the shit out of herself watching these things.

* * *

Bucky had by now pulled down the body, which set off a flurry of calls from Coulson and a voice feed from Tony in LA, who was yelling at about fifteen people at once to find out what this body was doing in his Tower. Bucky didn't care who it was or what it was doing up there; Darcy was nowhere to be seen. The Tower was on alert and Steve was currently memorizing blue prints of the layout of the closest six floors, but the ceiling wasn't neatly outlined. Where there were walls on the main floors there might not be in the ceilings and vice versa, and the ventilation system crisscrossed all of it.

"Shut down as many access point as you can," Steve ordered to Jarvis. "We don't know who else is up there." It remained unspoken, but in a glance Bucky and Steve shared the same sentiment: Darcy might have stumbled on something worse and someone had grabbed her.

"I have sealed all the vents, sir, and there are no heat signatures within them. I did register one briefly here though." Jarvis made a notation on the map, a vent halfway across the floor in the complete opposite direction of the body. Bucky and Steve headed straight into Tony's part of the floor, and this time Steve climbed up with a flashlight.

"The dust has definitely been disturbed," he called back down. "But I don't think I can squeeze through that entry."

"Damn Dorito," Bucky muttered under his breath, and when Steve dropped down he punched Bucky in the metal arm.

"Don't quote Tony at me. And it's looks like she's moving south." Bucky's lips twisted up wryly before falling in step behind Steve, one eye on the ceiling.

* * *

Darcy was standing in a stairwell looking incredulously up. "You gotta be kidding me." She hadn't been able to find the elevator. The whole section of office was dark and quiet, the Christmas lights the only light other than from the windows. She'd tried to ask Jarvis for help but she hadn't gotten a response. This must have been the part of the area Jane had stolen the electricity from. She and Jane were gonna have words about the duties of an intern later.

Jane's part of R&D was on the 72nd floor. The Avengers all lived on floors 83-93. She wasn't even sure which one was Bucky and Steve's, and she was gonna have to climb up a minimum of ten floors. And that was assuming the two guys weren't totally freaking out if Jarvis had told them she'd found a dead body in the ceiling.

Awesome. Nothing was every normal for her.

* * *

"Sir, I've detected a heat signature in Stairwell Access C. I'm afraid cameras are offline on this floor there at the moment."

"Tell us how to get there, Jarvis," Steve instructed, almost wishing he had an earpiece as opposed to a disembodied voice coming vaguely from all over. Bucky grunted and followed two steps behind. They'd been poking their heads into ceilings and calling for Darcy for the last fifteen minutes and were now caked in dust.

"It is moving up, sir, starting from Floor 71."

"That's gotta be her. Notify the others." Bucky and Steve pounded up the main stairwell to the 75th floor and then followed Jarvis' directions to a side door in a corner by a potted plant. Steve shouldered open the fire door so hard he broke the hinges. "Darcy?"

"Oh thank god. Or Thor or whatever," came her familiar voice. Darcy was leaning on the railing a flight down, covered in dust and cobwebs, face flushed, and she'd never looked more magnificent.

"We found her," Steve breathed, so relieved it felt like gulping in air after an asthma attack. He was down the stairs and kissing her before she'd even registered it. She barely got to appreciate the lip-lock though before Steve was pulling back sheepishly. "Sorry about that." He and Bucky had been imagining the worst, especially with that unknown body in the ceiling.

"Thought you'd been snatched, doll," Bucky said roughly as Steve put her back on her feet. Darcy pouted for a second before remembering there was a _second_ soulmate she could be kissing.

Bucky caught her round the waist when she jumped at him and kissed her back a little less enthusiastically than Steve but a little more talented too. They broke apart a moment later and everyone just kind of grinned at each other until Bucky put her down.

"Sorry. I kinda freaked and went a hell of a lot farther than I meant to," she admitted, holding out one hand until Steve took it. "Thanks for coming after me though."

"For you? Always," Steve promised with every ounce of his Captain America goodness.

The metal plates in Bucky's arm whirred into a more defensive position. "Would do a lot more than crawl around ceilings looking for you," he added. There was a flash of the Winter Soldier in his look, but the hand holding hers was steady. Steve squeezed her other hand encouragingly.

She wanted to say something about how they didn't really know each other, how she'd never said more than ten words to either of them, how soulmates were overrated, but how do you say that to two stupidly handsome faces you've been almost pining over for the last six months?

"Captain Rogers, Mr. Stark would like to remind you that stairwells make poor places for… reunions."

"I'm gonna assume that was edited," Darcy said with a grin. "Also, why does he care?"

"Betting pool," Bucky grunted, shooting a look at the camera in the corner. Steve rolled his eyes.

"I could use a shower before we take this… reunion anywhere," Darcy winked because, what the hell, these were her soulmates and she didn't believe in boundaries anyway.

"We should really do dinner first at least," Steve protested as he opened the broken fire door for her.

Bucky followed behind her and leaned in just a second and whispered, "I'll fix that." Then he straightened up and said in a normal tone. "Use our shower at least, doll. Give us time to cook." He winked when she glanced over her shoulder. She already had a good feeling about this relationship.

* * *

Darcy was woman enough to admit that she was disappointed she was showering alone. Still, she scrubbed clean and luxuriated for an extra couple of minutes because the shower had fifteen different settings and she needed to try at least three before finally drying off and yanking on her Hulk t-shirt she'd left behind and a pair of ratty sweats she'd left at some point in the lab and forgotten about.

"So it's kinda cool of Natasha to lend me her spare emergency toiletries…" Darcy started as she stepped out of the bedroom only to walk right into an image straight out of that Moaning Commandos porno she totally never watched.

Steve's head was being held back by Bucky's metal hand while he went to town on Steve's bared throat, pressing him up against the hallway wall outside the master bedroom. Steve's hand loosely held on to Bucky's belt like he'd been trying to get it off but hadn't quite managed under the assault.

What was really making Darcy's panties wet though wasn't Bucky's legs entwined with Steve's or the patterns his tongue was making, it was the words tumbling out of _Captain America's_ mouth.

"Imagining it now, Buck?" Steve gasped. "Naked and wet, your name on her—her back," he stuttered, and Bucky grunted as he pushed him back into the wall hard. "Those soft fingers wrapped around you, huh Buck?" Steve managed, laughing breathily before he fisted his hand in Bucky's shirt and yanked him forward into the hottest kiss Darcy had ever seen. "C'mon Buck, leave the lady something," Steve joked as the grinding got harder.

Steve opened his eyes to grin down at Bucky, but they went comically wide instead when he saw Darcy standing there. "Oh shit, Darcy!"

There was a scramble as Bucky glanced over his shoulder and then refused to pull his hand out of Steve's pants and Steve tried to turn so red the bite marks on his throat would be invisible. He'd clearly been banking on her wanting to take advantage of that shower more than him, which was clearly an oversight.

"You want spaghetti or this?" Bucky asked, jerking his head at Steve. His right hand definitely squeezed Steve's cock right at that moment because the Captain shook a little at the knees. Darcy was feeling weak-kneed too.

"Only if I get a little of you too," Darcy said, looking at the invitingly undone belt buckle.

Bucky grinned. "Sure thing, doll."

Steve pulled her into him the moment she stepped into range, kissing her hard enough to steal her breath. Against her stomach she could feel Bucky's hand move, still down Steve's pants, and Steve moaned into her mouth. His big hands came up to cup her face and moved her into just the right angle to sweep her mouth and turn her brain right off. What was that about virtuous, untouchable, "aw shucks, ma'am" Captain America? Because Darcy had never met him.

Two hands on her hips started to pull her backwards and she whimpered unhappily as she was pulled away from Steve. "That's right, kitten," Bucky encouraged, nibbling on the curve of her ear. "Lure him away from the kitchen…"

Steve laughed as Bucky pulled her into the master bedroom and immediately turned her around to do his own plundering with his tongue. Big fingers were at her waist from behind a moment later tickling up the back of her shirt.

"I want to see, Darce," Steve murmured in her ear. "See our names."

She wanted to say "me too", but it was swallowed up as Steve pulled her shirt over her head and Bucky immediately pulled the cup of her bra down and sucked a nipple into his mouth. He only let go with a pop when it was swollen and worried pink before he fell back on the bed and looked up at her and Steve. She was panting and her hair had to be frizzing, but she'd never felt more aroused in all her life, staring down at Bucky with the insistent heat of Steve at her back.

"I wanna see names too," she said, making grabby hands at Bucky and yanking off his shirt. Steve managed to be shirtless too when he fell in bed beside Bucky, and Darcy felt herself stop a moment to just plain stare. These two looked ridiculously perfect together, and she suddenly wasn't sure how on Earth or Asgard she fit in.

"This okay?" Steve said suddenly, smile dying on his face as he looked at her expression.

"Yeah of course," she said automatically, because hello? Two superheroes in bed together. She was wetter than the ocean. The way they moved with each other showed how long they'd been together, but her 'D' on Bucky and the rest of her name peeking from those sweatpants on Steve was reassuring. She was _meant_ to be here.

"Maybe we should—" Steve started, but Bucky cut him off.

"C'mere, doll." Bucky encouraged her to straddle him and thumbed circles into her hips. "S'nice not to have 240lbs of worrywart on me." He leaned up and kissed her sweetly this time, probing gently at her bottom lip until they're tongues tangled together. There was something reassuring in the way Bucky kissed her then, how one metal and one flesh hand ran up and down from his waist to her hips like he couldn't get over the curve of her.

She'd find her niche with them. She'd been that poli-sci intern dragged behind Jane after all, and she'd managed to wiggle her way in with the Avengers. This time she'd just be sandwiched—in the absolute best way possible.

That sweet kiss turned into something much filthier as Steve shucked his pants and hooked his fingers into Darcy's. She wiggled her hips invitingly and winked at him as he pulled pants and panties down. Then it was his turn to be pushed back while Bucky stripped. Darcy spent an inordinate amount of time tonguing her name and Bucky's on Steve's hips, eyes constantly flicking up to watch Bucky and Steve necking and kissing, one freckled and blond, the other scruffy and dark. Steve looked beautiful sprawled out on the bed like this, like some kind of debauched Adonis.

He flipped them with the kind of strength that made Darcy a little wetter, dropping her on her back and kissing her blind. She was so busy trying to keep up with him that she didn't even feel Bucky's hands on her thighs until he licked a hot strip up her slit. She almost came right then when he nipped at her clit before going to town with both fingers and tongue.

"Bucky, Bucky," she repeated as she scrabbled at his long hair while he must have spelled his full name on her until she shattered. Bucky grinned and sucked his fingers clean when he pulled away from her, and she collapsed like a doll without strings. Steve nibbled hickies into her neck. "You know that's not going to heal overnight like with you and me," Bucky said to him.

Steve grinned at her from where she lethargically watched them. "I know."

Bucky helped Steve roll on the condom and lube him—and by helped him she meant fondling Steve until he was teetering on the edge with each glance at Darcy, who was licking her lips and watching avidly. Steve's aborted thrusts earned him laughs as Bucky finally pulled his hand away. "Maybe next time we'll both take you," Bucky whispered in Darcy's ear, thumbing at a nipple. "In Paris Steve wanted so badly to try. 'So we can do it for our girl', that's what he said. Fill her up proper so she knows she's ours."

Steve flushed a bit, remembering his eagerness and a lot of pretty girls who'd never have looked twice at him before suddenly doing more than double takes. He and Bucky had shared a few dames over the years. Darcy's gaze was hot with lust as she raked him with her eyes.

"You gonna do this proper then?" she asked, hooking an ankle around Steve's waist to pull him close. A bead of sweat slipped down his neck as Bucky's fingers slipped down to stroke at her waiting pink core and Steve felt his cock twitch. He lined up with her and sunk in, holding her gaze the whole while as Bucky's fingers flitted around her bud, never quite touching despite the way she twisted and moaned.

"Stop teasing!"

"Steve's not teasin' sweetheart," Bucky said, thumb brushing up against Steve's pubes just to make him jump.

"But you are!" She reached for Bucky's cock but he caught her hand and kissed her palm, holding her easily as she struggled to free it.

"Uh uh, gotta save that. I want my turn and we gotta take the edge off Stevie here."

Steve, who was balls deep in Darcy now, wasn't quite able to string together a sentence to respond to that. His next thrust sent sparks all up and down him and Darcy both. Her ankles dug into his back as he drove into her smooth and slow, her back arching in an irresistible display. She felt amazing around him, pressure and heat, and Steve was on the brink, his cock so hard it was painful. Neither of them was going to last long, not with how Darcy's thighs were spasming around him and how hard he was thrusting now. Two more and a tweak from Bucky, and Darcy was screaming and coming apart around him. Steve drove her through her orgasm, wringing out every last sensation until Bucky's questing fingers stroked along the back of his balls and Steve finally came, gasping her name.

When he got his bearings, Steve tried to shift his weight off her, but Darcy's arms tightened around his back and held him there. Bucky stroked along her hands and Steve's back, tying them together as they came down from that high. Her small hands clutching at him like that while still intimately connected felt so _right_ that Steve stared down into those big brown eyes and felt himself falling.

He kissed her as deeply and sweetly as he knew how before reluctantly pulling away. "You're still…" she murmured when he drew out and tossed the condom.

"Serum," he admitted, flashing her a goofy smile.

"Shouldn't be a problem with two of us, huh Stevie?" Bucky said with his charming smile. Darcy huffed a laugh.

"Gimme a second here. I think my brain's been scrambled." Her thighs were quivering after two orgasms and she couldn't quite close her legs. Steve's fingers stroked up the inside of her thigh lazily as he gave Bucky a hooded look.

"Doll, this is nothing," Bucky said, leaning in for a hot kiss with Steve that sent a jolt through Darcy.

"Someone in the room is not a soldier with super stamina," she reminded them weakly as Bucky picked up her hand—while still kissing Steve—and pressed it into Steve's cock, which jumped somehow just moments after he'd come inside her.

"We'll do a training regimen," Bucky said as he pulled back and looked down wickedly at her hand stroking Steve. "Step one, push your limits."

Bucky hauled her up and into his lap. Her legs felt like jell-o, but that was okay because Steve braced her from behind, slotting them all together naturally like puzzle pieces. Bucky's abs flexed and pulled as he sat up on his knees, and Darcy traced them with her fingers appreciatively. She was starting to get her second wind.

Steve pulled a condom out from the nightstand drawer and rolled it on Bucky while those metal fingers played with her folds, sending sparks and jolts up her core. "Mmm… he left you wet, kitten."

His fingers were a bit cool as they slid inside her and she moaned at the sensation, head falling back on Steve's shoulder. "You're a total tease, Barnes," she said with her eyes closed and a smile.

"What was that?" he asked at the same moment he ground his fingers up into her, palm against her clit. She let out a small shriek as he hit just the right spot, but it wasn't enough, not after Steve. Steve cupped and squeezed her breasts as Bucky pulled his fingers free and slipped his cock inside her. Bucky didn't move though, just pressed up against her in all the right ways, her breasts to his chest.

"Move…" she groaned, trying to get some leverage even though she'd worn her legs out from gripping Bucky's head as he'd gone down on her and then holding on to Steve while he made it his mission to make her scream. She was going to need some help here. "Steeeeve…"

"Mmm?" he asked, nipping at her shoulder. Bucky grinned and leaned _over_ her to kiss him. She tweaked Barnes' nipple hard enough to earn her a pinch.

"Buck—ohhhh," she moaned, her complaint falling away as Bucky ground up slowly and Steve's hand played havoc with her clit. She leaned back further into Steve, whose hands slid down to her thighs and spread her as Bucky picked up the pace. She was still sensitive, so each pass he made over her G-spot sent glorious lights behind her eyes.

Darcy was pretty sure within a few minutes she was begging but she didn't care. Steve was kissing all along her neck and shoulders, calluses rubbing just the right way against her, bringing her higher and higher while Bucky kept the pressure on, never relenting until she was crying out their names and convulsing in their arms, scratching into Bucky's shoulders though she didn't know it at the time.

It took Bucky a minute longer to reach his peak, head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut rapturously. When he'd stopped shuddering his head thunked down on Steve's shoulder as Darcy tiredly carded her fingers though his tangled hair. She was well and truly sandwiched between them and even with the sweat cooling on their skin she never wanted to move.

Steve's fingers tangled with her in Bucky's hair. "You can't be done yet, Buck."

"Mm, you're right," he murmured, brushing a kiss against Steve's lips before pulling away from her and disposing of the condom. When he came back he shot Steve a truly wicked smile and pushed him to lie down. Darcy had given her fair share of blowjobs before, but Bucky had a certain grace to it that was something to behold—and no gag reflex apparently. Either that, or seeing the way his back flexed as Steve's abs rippled made her poetic.

Steve kept one hand in Bucky's hair, hips jerking occasionally as Bucky did something right, but then he was looking over at Darcy. "Touch yourself," he said, just a hint of the Captain getting through in the gruffness of his voice. Darcy didn't think she could handle another orgasm, but she wasn't about to disappoint that face. She was sopping wet, swollen and leaking a little, but it made something inside her jerk with pride and lust as Bucky pulled up to lick at the purple head of Steve's cock and locked his eyes on her hand.

"Darce, mmm…" Steve murmured, and she dragged his hand from the sheets to her folds, letting him touch her as she tried to watch Steve chest twitch and move and Bucky's bobbing head at the same time. Her hand seemed to reach automatically for her name on Steve's hip, knuckles brushing Bucky's swollen cheeks. She managed to roll enough to reach Steve's nipple, worrying and nipping it with her teeth even as his fingers inside her began to twitch and stutter and his hips jerk harder as Bucky brought him to the edge.

And then Steve was choking out Bucky's name, and she felt a small peak hit her too and an almost painful orgasm wrung from her. She'd barely caught her breath when Bucky was kissing her, the salty taste of Steve on his tongue. They kissed lazily for all of thirty seconds though before her stomach growled in a very unsexy way.

Bucky snorted a laugh. "Hungry, doll?" He sat up and for a second just took the two of them lying side-by-side there, Darcy at least feeling wrung out. "Lemme put the pasta in and we'll eat in here."

Bucky left, leaving Steve and Darcy to admire his tight ass as he walked away. Then Steve rolled over and tucked her into him, and she snuggled right up because cuddling was so Darcy's thing—especially when one of her soulmates was practically a space heater. "Intimacy still makes him jumpy sometimes," Steve explained softly.

"That's okay," she said half into his bicep. They were nice biceps, as good as Thor's really. "S'long as someone's holding me."

Steve smiled and shifted her more fully into his arms and twitched the blanket over their legs. "Always," he promised.

They were silent as Steve listened to the splash of water as the pasta was added and the click of the dial as the heat was turned up under the sauce. Darcy listened to Steve's heartbeat and tried not to fall asleep.

"Have you ever read Harry Potter?" she asked suddenly.

"What?"

"You know, the 'always' thing," she said unhelpfully.

"No?"

"Okay," she said, and didn't explain.

* * *

They ate spaghetti in bed, which didn't end as disastrously as it could have. The sauce was amazing enough to earn Bucky a blowjob as Darcy told him, which he promised to cash in on later, and Steve ate enough for three people.

She spent the night, and after a wake up call of Steve licking out Bucky—and she didn't think it was possible, but they kept topping what was the hottest thing she'd seen—Sam showed up with half their winnings.

"Buck?" Steve asked, pants dangerously low on his hips as he walked out to see Bucky accepting a gift card and a keg of some fancy barrel with Asgardian symbols on the side from Sam, who was trying not to look at anyone.

"Told Sam on the mission when to bet we'd have our third—and now I get half the winnings."

"I swear I wasn't going to bet!" Sam said immediately, hands up in the air as Darcy poked her head around the corner. "Uh, hey Darcy."

"Hi Sam," she said around a yawn. "Is that… Asgardian mead?"

"Uh, yeah. Thor didn't bet either; it's just congratulations. I think." Sam looked down at the barrel embarrassedly. "If it's half as strong as I think it is, only you two and the Hulk will want it."

Steve didn't look much interested, but Bucky sure did, and when Darcy went over to check out the barrel Steve resigned himself to a fresh attempt to get him drunk.

"Also, uh, Tony said something about a celebratory dinner, but I think Pepper's got a lid on that."

"Thanks Sam," Steve said, and he meant it.

"Also, sorry for the mood-killer, but that body Darce found was a dirty research assistant trying to sneak into the lab. He got caught in one of Clint's traps and…"

Darcy shuddered and stopped poking at the barrel. Bucky brushed against her back as he handed her the gift card. Sam left after a few more words and looked grateful to do so and Darcy wandered into the kitchen.

"Do you have chocolate chips for pancakes?" she called back after banging around a few cabinets.

Steve grabbed Bucky's hand before he walked into the kitchen and pulled him back for a hard kiss. "Found her," he said, loving the happiness those words made him feel. Bucky's smile was small but genuine. "Yeah punk, we did."


End file.
